Residents of a fire-ravaged B.C. community want to know what was done to protect their homes from the Elephant Hill wildfire last month.

The B.C. Wildfire Service says it is investigating after 33 homes were destroyed in Pressy Lake, about 60 kilometres southeast of 100 Mile House.

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Last weekend, residents were allowed to return home.

"I pep talked myself and I thought that I was mentally prepared for it. And you start driving in, and it just gets worse," Pressy Lake property owner Jennifer Brown told Radio West host Sarah Penton.

While the two cabins still stand on the property her family has owned for 27 years — what she calls her "home away from home" — Brown says the scene in the community is somber.

"You'll see an owner standing in a pile of ash and they're looking around at what's left and they're kicking through it. And it's remnants of their home. It's probably one of the most painful things I've ever seen."